“They’ve given me some guarantees and reassurances about what we can do, because we’ve got a big club here which we need to take forward and make sure it isn’t us celebrating staying up - that can’t be the goal. It’s not my goal, that’s for sure.

“But I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”

And how will he achieve those aims? Only with the backing of the whole club, including the fans who roared Sunderland to those famous victories over Chelsea and Everton at the end of last season.

Moyes’ record against Sunderland is impressive, but he says he is now looking to turn the Stadium of Light into a fortress.

“We always enjoyed coming up to Sunderland, but I’ve now got to make sure the Stadium of Light becomes a place where nobody wants to come,” to told the club’s official website.

“But let’s be fair – I’ll need everybody behind me, the players, we’ll need to get the team playing at their best.

“I want the supporters to see their attitude, effort and commitment.

“But in between that we want to add quality as we go along, we want to keep improving what we’ve got.

“So we’ll need the help of the supporters to get us there and all I can say is that I’m here to build, I’m here to make it better, try to give Sunderland a bit of stability which it has probably lacked.

“There have been too many managers over short periods – even for the supporters that’s not any good as well.

“I don’t think any manager can ever ask for time now, but I think if you’re a Sunderland supporter you’re saying ‘we want a manager to be here for a long time and we want them to take the club up’.

“It’s got all the infrastructure and everything in place to be a club at the top of the league.”